SYNOPSIS:
Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four will never be the same after this outrageously funny spoof of your favorite comic book movies! Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) stars as a nerdy high school student bitten by a genetically-altered dragonfly. He stumbles hilariously through the process of becoming a crime-fighter and as his new powers grow, so do the laughs. Sara Paxton (Aquamarine) and Christopher McDonald (Spy Kids 2) costar as the clueless damsel in distress and the comically intense super villain, along with Pamela Anderson and Leslie Nielsen. Going from superzero to superhero has never been this much fun!
MOVIE REVIEW:
With horrible spoof movies such as Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie assaulting our cinematic senses in recent years (courtesy of the directing duo; Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg), it make one crave for some good old ZAZ (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker)’s type of spoof comedy. Thankfully there’s Superhero Movie and although David Zucker is only in the producing capacity, it has all the ZAZ’s classic comedy trademarks to remind us how spoof comedy movies don’t have to be another Disaster Movie event (yes it’s a intended pun … did you get it?).
The first and most important difference between those two camp of spoof film makers would be that this one doesn’t tries to cramp all the recent pop culture into a desperate attempt at spoof movie. Superhero Movie wisely parodied one singular movie on the whole and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that it’s the Spider-man movie. Although it does branch out to other superheroes movies spoof (such as X-men and a certain young Bruce Wayne tale) and puns on other pop cultures, it does it sparingly and allows the comedic effects to come naturally and unforced.
The other notable part of this parody movie would be the comedic timing and usage of puns; slapstick, visual gags and satire take on the comic hero movies genre. It bears all the hallmarks of classic ZAZ films and if those oldies crack you up before, it’s likely to do the same here again. Personally one of my favorite comedic moments in Superhero Movie would be the fast tempo words play involving with “Grace, Jesus and Amen” and it makes me reminisce the riotous and hilarious moment in Scary Movie 3 (that involved Jesus and 2 Bowling Balls).
There are many painful looking physical slapstick moments (such as children who think they can walk through walls and other activities that involves actors getting hurt “physically” suddenly and continuously) that really hit all the right comedic notes. Another notable moment would be the Superhero costume satire. Not exactly Edna Mode’s take on capes in The Incredibles but it does have it own moments. Last but not least, there was a heroic battle scene that took an unexpected turn when both the hero and villain broke the 4th wall and that scene never fail to crack me up every time I replayed this movie.
However one must dutifully that the jokes here are mixed bags. While some are darn funny, some just inspire a “What the?” expression at best.
There are also a couple of noticeable cuts in this movie that marred the viewing enjoyment. In recent years, censorship had become niftier in cutting out the objectionable stuffs that it’s hard to spot which sequences had been cut out. However in Superhero Movie, the cuts were quite obvious and jarring that it made me rewind the dvd to check if dvd skipped. The most noticeable bit would be the finale when our hero was trying to figure out who was the villain and it just jumped to villain revelation bit. It just felt that one whole chunk of the film was missing. There’s also a scene at the graveyard that suffered under the untimely cut and I will leave that for you to spot.
In closing, if you miss spoof movies like Hot Shots, Naked Gun and even Scary Movie 3, Superhero Movie will do just nicely to fill the gap. It might be crude and even gross (with all the fart and pee jokes) but then sometimes we need some lowbrow entertainment (though not as low as what Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg had been and are still providing).
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
As a recent movie, the picture quality is as crisp as one would expect and the audio in 2.0 channel are just fine to hear all the farts coming out of your TV.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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